President of the Quarry Association of T&T Ramdeo "Dan" Persad is predicting said the country will get a new crude oil production centre if a large scale mining and processing project gets off the ground in Trinidad's south-western peninsula.
The proposed project involves the abundant tar and oil sands in fields located at Forest Reserve, Parrylands, Guapo and Antilles-Vessigny and Persad said it could produce 50,000 to 100,00 barrels of synthetic crude oil per day.
Persad spoke about the project, which is being spearheaded by a member of the Quarry Association, in his address at the group's recent dinner and award ceremony at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.
He said: "This is envisaged to be the largest mining project when approval is granted, requiring a daily production of raw feed in the order of 100,000 cubic meters for a project life of 25 years."
However he expressed concern about the "massive sterilisation" of more than high quality bitumen which forms a substantial part of the commercial deposit. "It is clear that planners and road designers never paid any attention to this geological phenomenon. The end result is that the highway from Mon Desir to Point Fortin is designed to pass through what is referred to as the Jhangal that straddles the Antilles-Vessigny/Guapo fields," he said.
Persad appealed for an alternative route to be sought and warned of "severe geotechnical failures" along that multi-billion dollar segment of the highway.
Focusing on the benefits of the proposed project he said: "Can you imagine the lucrative spin-offs for our quarry industry from this proposed commercial Trinidad and Tobago energy and mining project?
"This work has not been undertaken before and will lead to a series of definitive conclusions for determining and developing a new crude oil production centre from unconventional sources of petroleum deposits generated from out association."
Persad expressed concern about the system used to allocate State lands for mining. He said while a previous system had provided fairplay and greater transparency, for the last allocation of State lands, then Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine used his powers under the relevant law to make an allocation of six blocks of land at the Melajo Forest Reserve.
He appealed for a return to a competitive bidding process for future allocations of State lands for quarrying.